SHILLONG: The CSWO has lashed out against illegal appointments and promotions in the State by questioning the appointment and promotion of two deputy secretaries K.G. Chaudhury and N.K. Arjun who is presently serving in the Governor’s Secretariat.
In this connection, the organization had filed an FIR on March 8 and police had verified the complaint to be genuine.
The CSWO also filed an RTI with regard to appointment of A. Lakiang, presently working as under secretary, and A. Nongsiej who is shown to be a Steno Grade II, both of whom were illegally appointed and promoted, the organisation claimed on Friday.
Inspector D. Khongshei was appointed as Investigating Officer to look into the case but the IO was transferred and posted as Prosecuting Inspector (PI), East Khasi Hills District.
An RTI was filed to look into the progress of the case, but the reply was that the case was referred to the IG of Police (ER) Meghalaya by the SP of East Khasi Hills District, the CSWO stated.
As a follow up, the CSWO claimed that another RTI was sent to the PIO, SP East Khasi Hills District, seeking information if the case was handed over to the CID but the reply was in the negative.
The CSWO informed that they had reported the matter of illegal promotions and appointments to the President of India on March 11 following which the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a memorandum requesting the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to take appropriate action and intimate the petitioner (CSWO) and the Ministry about the report.
In view of the order, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (PC Division) sent a letter to the Chief Secretary of Meghalaya for appropriate action but no report has been provided from the Office of the Chief Secretary till date.
The CSWO pointed to the fire incident that took place in 2003 and said, “There was a lot of secrecy and K.G. Chaudhury was running the Raj Bhavan by fooling many Governors and Secretaries of the Governor’s Secretariat, with connivance of a few bureaucrats in the State government, who were aware of these illegal acts. As then PIO K.G. Choudhury replies that the appointment of the staff of the Raj Bhavan falls under the prerogative of the Governor.”
The organization blamed a few bureaucrats in the State, who overlooked the constitutional validity of certain posts stating that the people involved in illegal employment were a direct threat to the indigenous people of the State as they have access to destroying a lot of important documents of the State.
“At the same time some anti nationals destroyed many important documents and many Acts were tampered with and the excuse is that all documents were burnt in the fire.
All RTIs filed seeking many Acts became centralized and Gazette copies of Acts, which should be well maintained in all Government departments started disappearing and many gazettes are not well maintained.
Even documents from the Archives went missing; whole gazette volumes of 1972 and 1996 went missing from the Government Press and no officials seems to have filed any FIR in this matter,” they said.
CSWO added that it will take up the matter with the UN Special Rapporteur for the Indigenous Peoples, due to inaction of the State Police on such an important issue.
